My doctor believes I could have contracted it using the exercise facilities, since this is where these bacteria are often found.

What should I do, and more importantly, what can others do to prevent this illness from spreading?

— MP

Dear MP,

I want to thank you for writing and hope that you have recovered your health.

I want to offer you an apology for not addressing this issue in a timely manner.

I have to confess to our readers that I received this question several weeks before the hysteria of MRSA hit the popular media.

At the time, I was doing a little research, but when it hit the press, I decided to sit on it until the hype passed. I do applaud you for reaching out to educate yourself and others in our community, but in this business there is always a fine line between health awareness and health hysteria.

Lately, staph infections, particularly MRSAs, have become the latest “threat” in the news and talked about around campus. What we know about MRSA, or Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, is that it is a staph infection caused by bacteria.

It has been around for a long time and is not necessarily a new threat.

MRSA is commonly found on the skin or nose, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, approximately 25 percent of the population is colonized by this bacteria — meaning they have staphylococcus aureus bacteria present on the skin or nose but do not suffer from an infection.

What makes MRSA different is that it is resistant to certain antibiotics.

Being Methicillin-resistant means the bacteria that causes staph infections has mutated to the point that the medicine that was at one time commonly used for staph infections is no longer effective.

This makes it possible for the bacteria to go unchecked and cause potentially life-threatening infections in bones, joints, surgical wounds, the bloodstream, heart valves and lungs.

MRSA generally starts out as small red bumps — similar to a pimple or spider bite — but can turn into deeper, more painful abscesses.

Risk factors for community acquired, or CA, MRSAs include participating in contact sports, sharing towels or athletic equipment, having a weakened immune system or living in crowded, unsanitary conditions.

MRSA usually is spread through skin-to-skin contact with someone who has it, usually from drainage from a cut or wound. In the majority of the cases, what is needed is for you to have an opening in your skin caused by a wound, cut or scrape in order for the bacteria to enter once you have made contact with it.

A student who lives in the residence halls and/or works out at one of the popular gyms around campus or plays contact sports may seem like the perfect candidate for MRSA and students should be aware of this.

However, what’s more important is that you have the knowledge to prevent the possibility of contracting MRSA and/or spreading it.

I don’t mean to downplay the seriousness of the infection itself because it can kill, but in all probability, the chances of contracting MRSA are very low if you follow standard precautions.

You literally need to take your health into your own hands by washing them frequently with soap and water, or, at the very least, the use of an alcohol-based sanitizer with lotion.

Make sure any scrapes and/or cuts you have are kept clean and covered in public for your safety and the safety of others.

Don’t share personal items with people like towels or jock straps (think I’m kidding, don’t you?).

Keep away from the bandages and wounds of others.

Make sure the gym equipment you’re using has been cleaned or clean it yourself.

Most of the gyms on campus do a good job at this.

Since I don’t deal in possibilities (unless I am buying lottery tickets), let me just say again that the probability of contracting MRSA is very low if you use common sense preventative measures. Frankly, I would worry more about getting the exercise than I would about contracting MRSA from the equipment.

— Dr. D.

Dennis Martell, Ph.D., is a coordinator of Olin Health Education. E-mail him your questions at dennis.martell@ht.msu.edu.